


take this pink ribbon off my eyes

by theformerone



Series: resolve [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Haruno Sakura, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Haruno Sakura-centric, Haruno Sakura/Character Development, what if they actually caught sasuke before the end of the world happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 07:25:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13266570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theformerone/pseuds/theformerone
Summary: Sakura is sixteen when she discovers that teen love can’t cure a lifetime of trauma.It happens like this.





	take this pink ribbon off my eyes

**Author's Note:**

> Title lifted from No Doubt's 'I'm Just a Girl'.

Sakura is sixteen when she discovers that teen love can’t cure a lifetime of trauma. It happens like this.

The world is rapidly careening towards an end none of them can anticipate. Sasuke has somehow got himself caught in the middle of it. They are somewhere in the wild and Sasuke has just told Kakashi that he wants to bathe in his blood and Sakura has two thoughts simultaneously.

 _'I need a drink,'_ and _'Yo_ _u need therapy_. _'_

Sakura is fast. Wicked fast, and she’s dodged stronger fists, taken rougher blows. This time, she’s the one to flash behind Sasuke. She is the one to send a burst of (hot angry fierce sad _how could you do this to Naruto_ _how could you do this to Naruto_ ) chakra into his system. It stuns him, but Sasuke was Orochimaru’s lab rat. God only knows what he can take now. But Sakura is not only Tsunade’s apprentice. She is Shizune’s and Kurenai’s and Asuma’s and Gai’s and one boy is not strong enough to stop her. Not anymore.

Her ferocity takes him by surprise. She knew it would. She had felt herself freeze the first time, at the base. And doesn’t that feel like a lifetime ago? Seeing him, being so close to him was a shock that rooted her to the floor in fear and loathing and something ugly and hopeful. That is gone now.

His Sharingan isn’t activated. Even now. Even after she got the jump on him. Even when it’s all taijutstu and Sakura’s fists are strong enough to break bone, he doesn’t take her seriously. Even when she summons a wave of water from beneath her feet to drown the katon he throws at Naruto. Even when she kicks the surrounding cliffs so hard, they crumble under her heel.

It doesn’t get under her skin half as much as she thought it would.

Somewhere along the way, Sakura had realized that Sasuke has been chasing ghosts since he was twelve years old. He has a family to avenge. She can respect that. But Sakura has hundreds of families to protect. Families that live and breathe now. That will suffer and die because of the choices the boy (the beautiful boy, the boy in so very much pain) in front of her makes. For as long as she’s liked him, fancied that she loved him, she has been trying to save someone who does not want to be saved. Not anymore.

Now she would leave the grand schemes and master plans to Naruto. He was better at convincing people of their goodness. He always had been. Sakura has more practice looking wives and husbands and children in the face and telling them that their loved ones are going to die and there is nothing she can do to stop it. Naruto could keep his dreams on the road with Jiraiya. Sakura learned the truth in the hospital with Tsunade. Idealism was a luxury she could no longer afford.

So she fights. Throws her back into it. She’s not faster than him, but she’s just as mean, maybe even meaner. He’s got something to prove, somewhere to be. But she’s got Naruto and Kakashi-sensei beside her. She will not make the same mistake twice. Not in front of them.

And when Sasuke’s fist buries itself in her chest, fingers bursting through bone and cartilage to wrap and rip her heart out, she bursts into a thousand cherry blossom petals that flutter too close to his black eyes, moving faster, getting sharper and sharper and sharper still until he has to shut them and flex his chakra to dispel the illusion.

Sakura has already weaved five more over him, hasn’t been fighting him at all, is crouching meters away on dry land. Kurenai trapped Itachi once. Sakura can trap Sasuke ten times over.

Naruto and Kakashi-sensei are flanking her, Kakashi-sensei’s black eye crinkling as he realizes what she’s doing. He hadn’t seen her begin to form hand signs either. Kurenai taught her ages ago how to form seals within her coat without moving so much that the fabric telegraphs her movements. Asuma taught her how to think three-four-five-six-seven steps ahead.

“Incapacitate him,” she grinds out. Sasuke is vicious, ripping down her illusions almost as quickly as she can cast them. There is nothing horrible he has not already seen, nobody he loves that she can use against him, so she traps him in layer after layer of her own mediocrity, drowns him in the feeble girl he knew before he abandoned the village. He chews it up, spits it out, but stays stuck because Sakura is _good_. Has spent years working to be this good.

“I can’t hold him forever,” she grates.

Kakashi moves first, never one to deny an opening once he has one.

“Sakura-chan.”

Not for the first time, Naruto looks at her like he doesn’t recognize her. “I thought you -,”

Sakura wraps another genjutsu around Sasuke, chakra tugging at her as he gets caught in a reality that might not be the right one. It’s easier.

Between discovering and understanding that the boy of her adolescent daydreams would never see in her what she saw in him, Sakura realized this about Naruto. The boy’s heart was the size of his stomach, size of his chakra reserves, size of the village, size of the nature chakra invested in all living things. He had been tormented and ignored by strangers his entire life in the one place he knew as home, and chose every day without fail to smile through his hurt.

He was a fundamentally good person. A pure hearted person. A rarity in the shinobi world, especially for someone with his upbringing. Anyone less would have turned bitter and hateful years ago. But not him. Naruto had very few precious people in this world. And Sasuke was one of them. One of the closest things Naruto had to a brother. And no matter how well he got along with the boys of the Konoha Eleven, none of them would ever fit at his side the way Sasuke had. The bond they shared was beyond comprehension. Had spanned the years faithfully without a dip in intensity, without a moment of hesitation. And Sasuke for all his talk of severing bonds still couldn’t leave Naruto be. Couldn’t not engage, couldn’t not throw a barbed retort whenever they crossed paths.

What had Sakura loved Sasuke for? His looks? Because Ino liked him? Because all the other girls liked him? What had she ever bothered to know about him? She let a rumor about his so-called preferences decide how she presented herself for years in her pre-genie days. Had worried about how long her hair was and how smooth her skin was instead of focusing on the reality that she was twelve years old and preparing to join the military. She had wasted time in the academy trying to measure up to guesses at his expectations.

She had never bothered trying to be his friend. Of course the bond that he and Naruto shared was beyond her comprehension. They knew each other, respected each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Cared about each other. Sakura’s one sided affection and love confessions were little more than grating in hindsight. A wading pool compared to the ocean between Naruto and Sasuke.

“I never loved him like you did.”

She thinks of Neji. Of his hands cradling the limbs he assaults with the Gentle Fist. Thinks of the way he smiles at her, the way he chuckles. The way he lets her into his blind spot. She thinks of her first kiss and the boy in Suna she shared it with. Thinks of the crush she nursed for months on Temari. Thinks of Tenten's hand at her lower back, teaching her the basics with her tanto, guiding her steps. Thinks of the merchant boy on the way to Taki who called her a tree spirit. Thinks of the maiko on the mission to Hot Springs country who looked up at her from beneath thick, black eyelashes. Thinks maybe, some day, somewhere with someone, it would be possible. But not with Sasuke. Not as they are right now. Maybe not ever.

“I can bring him back for you,” she says, chakra draining fast. “But I can’t make him stay. And neither can you. It has to be his choice.”

She reminds herself that this is for Naruto. For Naruto. She got stronger, made herself stronger not only out of shame and guilt, but also for this moment. The moment when she could look at this extraordinary boy and release him from his promise.

Sakura doesn't want Sasuke. Not anymore. Not as he is now, selfish and cruel and blind to anything that doesn't serve his purpose. Not now that she's seen him for what he is and has seen what he's capable of doing. And maybe that's selfish of her. But she knows what the shinobi world takes from people, has watched it take and take and take from Sasuke and she doesn't know if there's anything left in him for her to love. 

But Naruto? Whatever reason or goodness or hope is left in Sasuke, Naruto sees it. And Sakura trusts Naruto. 

“Love won’t be enough,” she says. “Neither of us loving him was ever enough.”

By the time Sasuke has torn himself out of Sakura’s last genjutsu, Kakashi has disarmed him. She rises as Sasuke turns and engages with Kakashi, can feel the pressure in the air change as they call fire and lightning from the depths of their bellies to wreak havoc on one another. Sakura is steady on her feet. She tugs at her gloves, making sure they’re snug. She’s low on chakra, but she’s built like her shishou. She doesn’t need help to level a couple of boulders. Sasuke might as well be wet paper. 

“He has to want it, too.”

_'He has to love you back.'_

 

**Author's Note:**

> only person i ship sasuke with is his revolution and a lifetime of therapy. and sometimes naruto. 
> 
> i ship sakura on the other hand, with literally anyone who will love her like she deserves. 
> 
> i've always had huge HUGE H U G E beef with the idea that sakura, as empathetic and compassionate as she could be, could constantly shout about how much she loved sasuke but also blithely ignore that this boy is struggling with a lifetime of trauma with coping methods scraped from the bottom of the barrel, CONVINCED that the power of her love could make him better. i love sakura but honey. honey that just don't work. 
> 
> more than anything in the manga i just wanted her to realize that people can change, but they have to want to change. it can't be a gift for someone else. maybe that's a lot to ask of a sixteen year old girl who has to fight in a war. but hey, that's what fic is for amirate?
> 
> come bother me @ voregoisie on tumblr dot com
> 
> thank you for reading x


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